Ub ADMINISTRATIVE SECTlUiN 



with an education rate like that they could judge that other 

 local rates were high in the same proportion. iNotwith- 

 standiiig tliat, his authority had amongst its members 

 numbers ot men who were most anxious to do all that was 

 humanly possible lor the amelioration ol human suffering 

 ami lur tile saving ol child life, and the preservation ot 

 iniant hie, and oi the mothers during the rearing of their 

 babies. Hut they were heavily handicapped, and were at 

 their wits' end to know what to do because they could not 

 find the money. .After all with a population like theirs 

 there was a limit to the purse of every ratepayer, and 

 what thev said was that while they were paying a rate 

 of Js. od. in the : for their children for education 

 purposes, while they did all they could for the care 

 of tiie infants under their charge, other districts were 

 getting on with perhaps half of that rate, and they said that 

 me central authority should be pressed to give them assis- 

 tance and. so to speak, to equalize the strain that was now 

 put upon particular districts such as theirs. The care of 

 clnid life was a national question, and the nation should 

 provide the wherewithal, at any rate, to some extent, lie 

 ^ranted that localities should have some interest in the 

 matter, but they ought to be assisted by the central 

 authority. J le knew that in his own district there existed 

 a feeling sufficiently strong now to do a great deal towards 

 the solution of the problem that had been put before the 

 i onierence that day, but he could also say that were it not 

 r the eternal money question they would be able to do a 

 :ieai more. The will existed but not the power, and 

 direction that he would impress upon members 

 critics to do all they could to educate the 

 full sense of their responsibilities and upon 

 educate the ( lovennnent in the same direction. 

 ,KS A. ! IODCI.TI s (Canada) said he would like 

 )r. ( ierstenberger what the mortality rate of Cleve- 

 lai -1 wa~ under its present svstem, compared with what it 

 A a- belore thai .-vstem was adopted. 



I )r. ( IKKSI HM'-KRCKK replied that they were quite in the 



with regard to the birth^, and therefore they did not 



.', i lie exact mortalitv rate. According to the records 



of the health officer, in 1905 it was iS, and at present it 



wa- between i i and u. but they had no idea what percentage 



of the b'rths were sent in to The health officer. They knew 



how manv children died, but they did not know 



how many were born. It was a sad thing that they could 



not have tho-e statistics, but under such circumstances 



there was. of course, no sense in using the statistics at 



